Melissa Bean makes it easier for Dems to oust GOP congressmen

Greg Hinz On Politics

Greg Hinz

The decision by former Congresswoman Melissa Bean to accept a job running a downtown club could make it markedly easier for Springfield Democrats to send some of Illinois' new GOP congressmen into oblivion.

Here's how I get to that view:

Ms. Bean, a Barrington Democrat, was upset by Republican Joe Walsh in the November election, but just barely. Had she decided to try to regain her House seat in 2012, Democrats in Springfield, who are preparing to remap the state's congressional districts, likely would have been under strong pressure to accommodate her.

That would mean creating a district that includes turf that would be helpful to other Democrats elsewhere. Like whoever the party runs against GOP freshman Robert Dold in the north suburban 10th District, which runs to the east of Mr. Walsh's 8th District. And Ms. Bean's chances of winning in the largely Republican northwest suburbs would have been iffy.

But now Ms. Bean will be the executive director of the Executives' Club of Chicago, a business-focused group headed by CME Group Inc. CEO Craig Donohue.

Neither Ms. Bean nor Mr. Donohue was available for comment Wednesday morning. But I can't imagine Ms. Bean would take the job now, then start circulating petitions in just a few months to try to get her old job back.

So, I conclude that she's not running. Which means Democrats can pull off donkey-leaning portions of her old district into the 10th and the 9th, to shore up Democrat Jan Schakowsky's population-short district.

Ms. Bean's departure also clears the way to create a really strong GOP district out in the northwest suburbs, but one that — not by coincidence — is likely to include the homes of Mr. Walsh and another GOP freshman, Randy Hultgren (14th), and maybe one or two others, forcing the elephants to fight among themselves.

We won't know for sure for a few months. But it sure looks like things are headed that way.